A variety of loyalty programs are offered to consumers. Loyalty programs usually offer an incentive designed to encourage customers to conduct business with one organization rather than a competitor organization. One type of loyalty program takes the form of a point system in which a customer is credited with a number of points for each transaction and is entitled to exchange a certain number of points for goods, services, or other rewards. Another type of loyalty program offers customers associated with the loyalty program a discount on items, which may be designated by the merchant.
An example of the first type of loyalty program is a frequent flyer program offered by an airline. An airline typically offers some number of points to each customer that is correlated with the distance traveled. At certain levels, the points may be exchanged by the customer for airline tickets. In some cases, additional incentives may be used to induce customers to reach certain point levels, such as by providing preferential seating and booking privileges. Similar loyalty systems are used in environments for the sale of goods or services, with customers of a particular organization being entitled to rewards in exchange for certain levels of business.
Examples of the second type of loyalty program, in which a customer participating in a loyalty program is offered a discount, include loyalty programs offered by grocery organizations. A grocery store organization may offer a discount on designated items to customers having a loyalty program account. In some cases, the loyalty program may also offer the customers other rewards or benefits when the customer reaches certain levels of business with the grocery store organization.
Customers wishing to enroll in any of these types of loyalty programs are required to provide detailed information to the organization offering the loyalty program. This can be a time consuming process. Thus, customers may decline to enroll in loyalty programs and may therefore have no incentive to conduct business with a particular organization.